The large international Conference organised by the German Helmholtz Association will take place on 6-9 October 2014 in Berlin, Germany. Submit abstract before 30 May.

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Climate modelers and scientists from around the world are invited to help improve the next generation of Coupled Model Intercomparisons and submit their comments before 15 September 2014.

Since 1995, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has coordinated climate model experiments involving multiple international modeling teams. Through CMIP, climate modelers and scientists from around the world have analyzed and compared state-of-the-art climate model simulations to gain insights into the processes, mechanisms, and consequences of climate variability and climate change. This has led to a better understanding of past, present, and future climate, and CMIP model experiments have routinely been the basis for future climate change assessments made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

An initial design for CMIP6 has now been developed (Meehl et al., EOS, 2014) that is open for comments from the community until 15 September 2014. This includes a small set of experiments to be routinely performed by modeling groups whenever they develop a new model version. The output from these so-called ongoing CMIP Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima (DECK) experiments will be distributed for community use via the ESGF infrastructure. Other Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) will build on the CMIP DECK experiments and augment them to address a broad range of scientific questions. Additionally proposed MIP experiments together with the CMIP DECK experiments will constitute the suite of simulations for the next phase of CMIP.

MIPs are now invited to request endorsement for the next phase of CMIP (i.e., CMIP6). A CMIP6-Endorsed MIP may propose that a subset or even all of their experiments be included as part of the suite of simulations constituting CMIP6, see further information in the template for these applications which is available on the CMIP Panel website. This website also lists the current active MIPs under ‘Catalogue of MIPs’. The co-chairs of these MIPs have been informed by the CMIP Panel and WGCM co-chairs that the application for CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs is now open.

The Climate Symposium 2014 will take place in Darmstadt, Germany, 13-17 October. This large conference focusses on climate information for decision making and is organised by the World Climate Research Programme and Eumetsat.

Important dates:

31 March – Deadline to submit application for travel support

15 April – Deadline to submit abstracts

15 May – Early registration deadline

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In a new ACPD article, N. Eguchi et al. use the NICAM global non-hydrostatic model to investigate the dynamical coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) during a stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) in boreal winter. The model reproduced the observed tropical tropospheric changes well, including the enhancement of convective activity following the amplification of planetary waves. They found that deep convective activity was enhanced from 10-20°S and although this upwelling in the TTL was correlated with that occurring in the stratosphere, the TTL temperature tendency was controlled mainly by diabatic heating originating from cloud formation. This suggests that the stratospheric meridional circulation affects cloud formation in the TTL. The full abstract can be found here.

The 13th Quadrennial iCACGP Symposium and 13th IGAC Science Conference to be held on 22-26 September 2014 in Natal, Brazil, extended its deadline for abstract submission and Young Scientist support to 31 March.

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In a new ACPD paper, A. Schanz and co-authors use the WACCM model to study the diurnal ozone cycle in the stratosphere, exploring its underlying photochemical and dynamical processes. The analysis is focused on the middle stratosphere at 5hPa where the simulated ozone diurnal cycle shows a minimum after sunrise and maximum in the late afternoon. They find that this diurnal cycle varies seasonally and spatially, with a maximum amplitude of 15% (0.8ppmv) occurring at the polar circle in summer. They show that the global pattern of the diurnal ozone cycle is governed by the solar zenith angle and sunshine duration. They also find that the synoptic scale variability of the diurnal ozone cycle is often anti-correlated with regional temperature anomalies due to the temperature dependence of the Chapman cycle reactions. Furthermore, at high latitudes increased westerly (easterly) winds cause a decrease (increase) in the sunshine duration of an air parcel leading to a weaker (stronger) diurnal ozone cycle. The full abstract can be found here.

The January 2014 issue of the SPARC newsletter No. 42 is now available with articles on the following topics:

• Report on the 34th Session of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme
• The SPARC Activity "Lifetime of halogen source gases"
• IUPAC Task Group on Atmospheric Chemical Kinetic Data Evaluation
• Report on the IGAC/SPOARC Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) 2013 Science Workshop
• Workshop on Research Applications of High Resolution Radiosonde Data
• Report on the 7th Atmospheric Limb Conference
• Report on the Atmospheric Composition and the summer Asian Monsoon (ACAM) Workshop
• 5th SPARC General Assembly: A brief look back

Find CLIVAR Bulletin February 2014 with the following content:

In a new GRL article, A. Scaife and co-authors examine the predictability of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) in initialised climate forecasts extending out to lead times of years using coupled ocean-atmosphere models with internally generated QBOs. They demonstrate the predictability of the QBO extending out to more than three years, with correlation scores exceeding 0.7 at a lead-time of 12 months. Predictability could be further improved through better initialisation and more realistic representation of the QBO, although this may depend on the realism of the gravity wave parameterisation used. They also show that predictability is lowest in winter and that skilful prediction of the QBO does not guarantee predictability of the extra-tropical winter teleconnection so important for surface winter climate prediction. The full abstract can be found here.

Abstract submission and application for financial support now close on 28 February. The MOZAIC-IAGOS Scientific Symposium on Atmospheric Composition Observation by Commercial Aircraft will take place in Toulouse, France, 12-15 May 2014.

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